Tampa, Florida					Monday, September 06, 2010

This Too Will Pass
Saturday, November 26, 2005
TAMPA—The precious old French adage. “This Too Will Pass,” after the Tampa Bay Lightning reality spanking by the New Jersey Islanders, before the Tampa homefolks the other night, is now part of the Bolt Book of Quotations to file for use as needed. It is now needed. This too will pass. Also, more than that, “It Happens,’’ is in there, too now, in that file of Bolt Book of Quotations. Often times when quoted, or on car bumpers, two more letters in front of the “it,’’ to make it more graphic. Or, can be, “Stuff Happens. Doesn’t matter. It certainly did Friday night, to the Bolts before a clearly surprised soldout St. Pete Times Forum, there to celebrate the continuation of the recent Lightning play on the road—four straight wins—as well as a 5-0-1 streak prior to that fateful Friday. Word was Bolt Coach John Tortorella was concerned such a disaster was not unlikely because of the long road trip his team just completed, and the sag he worried might follow. Also, hockey history contains truths quoted declaring the first home game after extended trips to enemy places on the road are the toughest to win. That away stint with John Grahame at the goal surely caused the head coach to turn to backup Sean Burke as the Tampa goal tender for this return to the home ice, giving Burke a shot before the friendly home audience, and giving Grahame a rest. Grahame didn’t get the full game rest. Burke surrendered four goals on the first seven New Jersey shots at him, indeed, three on the first four. Those who know the game said Burke gave up two “soft goals.’’ The Islanders continued their mastery of Burke and the Lightning with a total of six goals in 17 shots for a 6-2 lead that caused Tortorella to tell Grahame to get in there and plug the net. Actually, Grahame surrendered two goals in nine shots at his net to add to the embarrassment of a 8-2 beating. Tortorella said he had this date circled as a toughie, before the season began. He was surely right. But, no one could have figured the completeness of the slam dunk, or, if you prefer, the severity of the Tampa collapse. Nobody. This Stanley Cup Bolt crowd has never been beaten so.	The Lightning of the past, surely. In January, 2001, at Ottawa, the Bolts of that time were dispatched 8-3, and in 2000, another Bolt team was wiped clean 8-0 at the Forum in Tampa. Yes, goaltender Burke said he played lousy in the rout by Jersey and he did. Grahame played okay, I guess, but the issue was resolved when he went in and gave up two more goals. The Bolts have figured they needed some thicker goal-keeping blood anyway on the roster after Stanley Cup tender Nikolai Khabibulin followed the big money to Chicago where his team is in third in his Division with a 9-12 record. It is a job of such foremost importance. Grahame was fine, but, well, the Bolts have looked and are still looking for another proven tender. Need it. The coach has said so, too. A fear, of course, is that the Bolts by the oversized defeat might slip back into the losing ways earlier in the season when they seemed disinterested, or as one pundit said, were waiting for their opponents to surrender at the first faceoff of each game. Been the opposite, of course. Beating the most recent Stanley Cup champs has become a mission for all. That learned, the Bolts reasserted, and righted themselves and began playing as expected, with new stars emerging to join the old, none more visible and helpful than Vinny Prospal, a point-making machine, superb player all around and nice man, too, precisely in the mold of Lightning returning superduper Brad Richards, Marty St. Louis, Freddie Modin, and the sensational, feared Vinny Lecavalier. Perhaps no win epitomized the Lighting as the fans want to see them, than the win at Washington just before the return to Tampa for Jersey. At Washington, the Bolts, down 0-3, rallied to win in a shootout (penalty shots) after overtime. It was the game the fans were talking about as they went to see their Bolts return to the Forum for the Friday night game against the Islanders, the awful game in the Bolts fans’ minds. Shoot, maybe the fans should have played against Jersey. Tortorella said such an off night on the ice was to be expected. But, he said now it is expected this team that has the NHL championship banner hanging from its home arena roof, will regroup, get ready for a fine series of games at home, and declare that the Jersey rout of them goes into the file of “Stuff Happens.’’ ##
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